Gilles Floro

The story so far.

Written and edited by Smokiller

Gilles Floro was a Guadeloupean pianist, writer and composer born on 18 April 1964 in Saint-Claude. Miziknou records that his father played violin and that at 14 he formed the group Jazz Power with his older brother Jean-Claude. He later played piano with Express-Band, Les Aiglons, Pakala and Les Vikings de la Guadeloupe and became one of the busiest studio musicians of the mid 1980s. His first solo record came in 1986, and the songs "Rêve bleu", "A pa pawol an lè" (1987) and "Diamant d'ébène" (1988) made his name in zouk. His albums include On dousè, Oh doudou yes, Spiritual, Kristal and Sans prévenir, with Désolé released after his death. He died on 22 June 1999, aged 36, after an electric shock while installing an antenna on his roof. In 2021 Outre-mer La 1ère covered a new version of his ballad "Bèl pawol pou en fanm", recorded by co-writer Jean-Claude Naimro with Riddla and Staniski.